Chapter 26
How Cunning
At Xie Laogen’s home, Lady Ruan was in a fit because her daughter failed to bring back the pork hock she wanted. Furious, Lady Ruan raged.
Later, Luo Guihua came over and vented more about their daughter-in-law, which made Lady Ruan throw another fit.
Her eldest daughter-in-law, Chen Liu, and her youngest daughter, Xie Lan, agreed with her and added fuel to the fire.
Inside the yard, Xie Laogen was tired of such ugly words and stopped them from talking so vilely.
Of course, Lu Jiao wasn’t aware of this. She took her children and returned home to make lunch.
For lunch, she made eggs with chives, chicken soup, and brown rice.
Since Lu Jiao soaked the brown rice ahead of time, it tasted decent after it was steamed.
The quadruplets were more than satisfied. As they ate, they told the First Born how much fun they had at Xie Fugui’s home. The atmosphere was rather chatty and clamorous.
Inside the bedroom, Xie Yunjin watched all this happen and his heart couldn’t help but to soften. Now when he looked at Lu Jiao, there was way less coldness.
While Lu Jiao fed him food, she told him what happened in the village.
“It looks like to me that the families in the village are rather poor?”
Now, Xie Yunjin no longer detested Lu Jiao like before. The person he hated was the original Lu Jiao. The person before him was most certainly not the old Lu Jiao. So the hate he felt in his chest was rather depleted.
“Yes, the Xie Village is near the mountains. There’s not much hydration in the air so crops are hard to grow and the days are hard.”
Originally, he had planned to work hard and pass the exams required to become an official. Then, he would be able to provide some support for the village. What he didn’t plan for was that he would get very much injured and may never succeed.
The thought of that made Xie Yunjin lose his appetite.
Lu Jiao noticed that he didn’t want to eat and fed him half a bowl of chicken soup.
As she cleaned up, she suggested, “If there’s an opportunity for everyone’s lives to get better, do you think they should go for it?”
Lu Jiao had thought about this on her way back from the Village Leader’s home.
The Xie Village was at the foot of the mountain and there were so many medicinal herbs on the mountains. A lot of what she saw was also well-aged. Since the villagers didn’t recognize them, they naturally were too afraid to touch them.
If she could teach everyone how to identify the different herbs, the villagers would be able to harvest those and sell them. That way, their lives would get easier.
Of course, she was willing to teach in order to earn some brownie points for Xie Yunjin and the four little ones. Since they now have a poor relationship with the Xie family, they needed to be on the Xie Clan’s good side.
She just didn’t know whether or not Xie Yunjin wanted the Xie Clan to have an easier time?
Right after Lu Jiao spoke, Xie Yunjin looked up at her with skepticism.
“What are you thinking of?”
At this point, Lu Jiao hesitated. She wanted to teach the villagers how to identify herbs. However, what if Xie Yunjin asks her how she learned about herbs?
Since she didn’t speak, Xie Yunjin started to speak slowly.
“Though there are some bad people in this village, the majority of them are nice people. Originally, I thought of going to school and then figuring out a way to help them make a living. I wanted to open a school in the village so all the children can go to school. Who knew I would wound up being disabled.”
The last sentence made Xie Yunjin appear extremely sullen and depressed.
With him being like this, Lu Jiao somehow felt guilty. Though it wasn’t her problem, she still felt bad.
She did her best to comfort him, “Don’t worry. I told you, I will find you a doctor who can cure you. You’ll get better.”
Just then, Xie Yunjin asked, “What have you thought of that could help the people?”
Lu Jiao said, “There are a lot of herbs up in the mountains. I can teach them…”
Before she could finish, she realized that she had fallen for Xie Yunjin’s trap. He first made himself sound pathetic just to ask her what he wanted to know. She had no time to defend herself.
Angry, Lu Jiao glared at Xie Yunjin. It was no wonder that he would become the villain. How cunning.
Without batting an eye, Xie Yunjin asked her, “How do you know which herb is which?”
Lu Jiao’s scalp felt numb and she found an excuse, “I learned some from when I lived at home. I don’t know a lot.”
Xie Yunjin’s eyes burned into hers and he chuckled, “I heard that your family has a difficult time as well?”
If Lu Jiao knew all about herbs, then why didn’t her own family harvest them and sell them? If they did that, then her family would be wealthier now.
Lu Jiao frowned and she frustratedly admitted, “Before, I didn’t know anything about being sick or the difficulties of the world. All I knew was to hide at home and enjoy my days. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have done that.”
She then took the dirty bowls and was ready to leave.
“Since you’re not interested, forget it.”
That would save her the effort of explaining everything.
Just as she was about to exit, the person in the bed spoke up, “It’s great.”
Lu Jiao turned around, “What is?”
Xie Yunjin said in a calm voice, “You can teach them how to identify the different herbs. The Xie Village is far too poor.”
Lu Jiao’s lips trembled as she thought, why was this all up to him?
But since her goal was to make sure the villain doesn’t hate her, she decided to go the soft way.
“Okay, I’ll tell the Village Leader to send a few representatives from each family. I won’t introduce all the varieties of herbs to them. I think teaching around 10 is enough.”
There were hundreds of species of herbs. It would be far too tiring for her to teach everyone everything.
Xie Yunjin didn’t object, “Okay.”
Lu Jiao added, “But, I’m not teaching those who give me a hard time.”
She wasn’t that big-hearted.
“As for your Xie family, tell them to send the second sister-in-law. I’m not teaching the others anything.”
Especially not Xie Lan. The sight of her made Lu Jiao feel disgusted.
Xie Yunjin didn’t have a problem with that. For some reason, this woman before him didn’t make him exasperated.
Lu Jiao again tried to leave but suddenly she found the four little ones staring at her wide-eyed. The four little ones glanced in her direction, then at Xie Yunjin.
For a moment there, they were extremely happy that their mommy and daddy spoke nicely to each other.
But very quickly, they realized that they had acknowledged this evil woman as their mother. How dare they? That was unacceptable.
The four little ones’ faces hardened.
Lu Jiao found them to be so strange. She placed the dirty bowls on the little table, then carried the table out along with the bowls on top.
Behind her, the four little ones dashed to Xie Yunjin’s bed and showed off their bamboo copters.
“Daddy, look at this! This is called a bamboo copter. It’s amazing.”
“Let me show you how it works.”
The four little ones started sending the bamboo copters into the air. As the bamboo copters flew, the four little ones ran around the room and giggled.
Xie Yunjin watched over these four and thought that if Lu Jiao had no poor intentions, she could stay and take care of the little ones. This woman here today seemed to know how to educate children well.